Among North American newspapers, the New York Times has been on the leading-edge when it comes to the Web. I was invited to try the new My Times service (it's in beta), which lets you personalize a news “portal” with NYT content, external news sources and blogs. My initial impression is it's ”good, quite good” because it combines the NYT's first-rate content (news, politics, sports, technology, arts, science) with high-quality external content such as CNet, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. You can even search for other content, which – much to my surprise – let me add my blog to My Times. To be honest, I'm not a big portal person even though I have My Yahoo and Google configured as start pages. That said, My Times is impressive enough to make me change my ways. My Times is a good example of how newspapers need to be pro-active and forward-thinking if they want to remain viable and vital – even an “institution” such as the NYT is not immune. See my post from yesterday for more thoughts on how newspapers need to embrace/adopt the Web.
Update: Richard McManus has an extensive post on the soon-to-be launched Times Reader service that's a must-read for anyone interested in the service.
AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk
Just in time for the VON conference in Boston (which has shifted its focus to video from voice), AOL's foray into the VoIP market is coming to an abrupt close in North America. According to Aswath, TotalTalk will be “terminated” on or about Nov. 30 in the U.S. In Canada, an AOL Canada spokesperson said the service will be terminated in October due to a “pretty challenging and competitive market”. Andy Abramson believes that rather than look at AOL's decision as a failure, it's a recognition by the company it will do better in voice through its its AIM PhoneLine service. Andy makes a good point because the “traditional” VoIP market (isn't that a strange phrase) is crowded with Vonage, 8×8, SunRocket the cablecos and even carriers. For AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Google, it makes much more sense to go the IM route than go head to head with the large VoIP service providers.
Update: According to a comment, TotalTalk subscribers in Canada have been sent letters that the service will be shut down on or about Oct. 22.
Wireless Camping Recap
Now that I've recovered from my recent camping “experience” at Sandbanks Provincial Park, here's wireless re-cap. For access, I used Bell Canada's Passport service (based on a Kyocera card), which was pretty good - certainly not blazing fast but it offered decent connectivity over Bell's 1xEV-DO network. I also blogged on a Blackberry 7250, which was fine although doing it by e-mail to Blogware didn't provide any way to use features such as hyperlinks or respond to comments. To be read blogs, I used Virtual Reach's Newsclip service, which is a sweet, little application. It's fast and easy to set up using a desktop interface. If you have a wireless device, and interested in reading blogs on the go, Newsclip is worth checking out.
Another Journo Flies the Coop
The number of journalists spreading their wings to run their own Web start-ups continues to expand with news that SiliconBeat's Matt Marshall is leaving to start VentureBeat, which will focus on private companies and their investors. Matt joins journalists such as Om Malik, who have made the jump after enjoying considerable blogging success. Maybe this is another sign blogging can become a legitimate business opportunity for some people. Or perhaps it's a sign of renewed (ir)rational exurberance in Silicon Valley that has given folks the entrepreneurial bug again – a phenomena that popped up during the dot-com boom as well.
Better Newspaper Web Sites
As an “ink-stained [newspaper] wretch” and Internet disciple, I'm fascinated by the struggles many newspapers are having embracing/adopting the Web. There are business issues (subscriptions vs. free content), access challenges (everything available vs. select content), advertising (cannibalize the lucrative classified business vs. let Craigslist eat your lunch) and content creation (blogs? podcasts? videocasts?). The Biving Report (hat tip to Jeff Jarvis) offers up nine ways that newspapers can improve their Web sites. Most of them are fairly straightforward: remove registration requirements, improve graphics/design and use RSS. Others are a little more progressive: partnering with local bloggers, the use of tags, and working with “social” Web services such as del.icio.us and Digg. It is curious to see newspapers still grappling with the Web a decade after Netscape helped bring the mainstream online. Then again, the music industry is still trying to figure out how to embrace the digital world. Personally, newspapers have little no choice but to go high or go home as far as the Web goes. With more people getting their news online, newspapers need to experiment and take chances to remain viable and vibrant. Some of these experiments will fail, while some of them will be successful. In an ideal world, newspapers will be able to offer physical and digital (online, wireless) products that meet the needs of a variety of readers AND advertisers.
Update: TechDirt has an interesting post today looking at the Web and newspapers – with a focus on a reporter in Missouri and a discussion about whether the newspaper Web site should provide links to external sites. (Ultimately, they decided not to do it)
Rant o' the Day: Bluetooth Earpieces
Here's the deal: I'm a quasi-geek at heart but I'm not a fan of Bluetooth earpieces. Over the past couple of days, I've seen a couple guys walking around with them. While I'm sure they're convenient and work well, they do not look cool at all. In fact, they say “loser” (gosh, that's harsh, isn't it?). I mean, does it really take that much work to reach for your wireless phone as opposed to using a Bluetooth earpiece? If you're driving, I guess you could justify it, although driving while talking on your phone is bad, bad, bad – particularly those SUV-driving-we-rule-the-road types. Anyway, I feel much better now. Carry on…….
